Bourne Abbey
| Bourne Abbey | |
|---|---|
| Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul | |
 |
|
| Location | Church Walk Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9UQ |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Previous denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Website | www |
| History | |
| Founded | 1138 |
| Founder(s) | Baldwin FitzGilbert |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Functional status | Active |
| Specifications | |
| Number of towers | 1 |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Lincoln |
| Clergy | |
| Vicar(s) | Rev Fr Chris Atkinson |
Bourne Abbey and the Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a scheduled Grade I church in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. The building remains in parochial use, despite the 16th-century Dissolution, as the nave was used by the parish, probably from the time of the foundation of the abbey in 1138.
While the Domesday Book makes it clear that there was a church in Bourne in 1066 and there is a suggestion that there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey, as far as is firmly known, the abbey was founded as a canonry, by a charter granted in 1138, by Baldwin fitz Gilbert de Clare (with the consent of Roger his son and Adelina his wife). He was a member of a post-conquest Norman family, settled in Suffolk, which later made its mark in Wales and Ireland. Adelina was a great-granddaughter of Hereward the Wake, though the connection with the Wake family was not made until the generation after Baldwin and Adelina, when their daughter, Emma married Hugh Wake. The house was for up to 14 canons of the Arrouaisian reform of the Rule of St. Augustine. This was the height of the period of abbey founding and castle-building in England.
The foundation of the abbey was part of a general restructuring of the estate so that the current town centre was built as a new town at the entrance to Baldwin's new castle. The new main road passed between Baldwin's new castle and the abbey. The pre-Norman road lies under the junction between the nave and the chancel. This proximity to the road may have influenced Baldwin's thinking when choosing an order for the new abbey. By this time, Arrouaise itself was moving away from being a hermitage towards providing a service for travellers.
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Wikipedia